About the band

Interview

"Playing their very own brand of Gypsy, Balkan Funk, Chavo, are back with a bang and a brand new record. Don’t Wake The Dead is out now on Batov Records and we caught up with the band at their recent album launch at Passing Clouds to talk about where they’ve come from, their style and their influences and what the future holds."

The band

Chavo is a London based band, initially formed as a Balkan recital outfit playing acoustic music to seated audiences. Very quickly the audiences began to stand up and the show times moved from 3pm to 3am. Sweating it out on the oom-pah music circuit became the norm, and after many years Chavo felt a desire for change. They waved goodbye to the traditional material (often sung in Roma or Serbian) and crafted an album of original songs in their home tongue - English. A change in line up and instrumentation also followed as they caught up with the technology of the 1970’s.

What appears to have distilled from this epic journey is both imaginative and intriguing. A percussion heavy, mandolin infused, vintage keys indie band with seductive female bv’s, pounding bass lines, 4-floor dance rhythms and harmonic discord - a firm footing in the west with a nod to the east.